4 On the Other Side of the World: June 2006

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Last Day of Orientation

Well, today was our last day of orientation here in Boone, NC. The last ten days have been wonderful and it is very evident that every member of the internship program was brought here for a specific purpose. I have never grown this close to a group of people this fast before. It's only been a week and a half and each one of us loves everybody else like brothers and sisters. It's been really great and we're going to miss each other. The cool thing is that we know that these friendships that we have made over the past several days will continue on long after our internship program is done. It's not the 15 of us have replaced our families, but that we all have become part of our family. I think that's a God thing.

Over the past ten days we have been through a whole lot of training and preparation. We've learned about every single project that Samaritan's Purse has throughout the world, as well as things such as Field Finance, Field Logistics, Communications, Cross-Cultural Evangelism, Culture Shock, and NGO Lingo and Procedures. Just to name a few. We've also had a great time participating in team building activities and spiritual development activites. Some really fun things that we've done have been horse back riding, a ropes course, and going to Grandfather Mountain. You can check out pictures from all of this over the past ten days in my photos through the link to the right of the page. They're in the Orientation photo album.

God has been doing some really cool things in my life over the past several months and especially the past several weeks. Growing in the Lord is a pretty exciting thing I think. One thing that I've really come to enjoy lately deals with getting older. Since my 23rd birthday was last week, I've had a good chance to think about this. It's nice to get older because as the years pass by we have the chance to see how God has been working in our lives over the past several years to prepare and set us up for what He's doing at this current time. Some times things or events in our lives don't really make sense as they are happening, but eventually God pulls them all together and great things happen. Also, another aspect of this is that as we grow older we start to see blessing and miracles happen to other people and in our own lives, that we didn't really notice when we were younger. For me, this two things have kind of added a tangible aspect to my walk and my relationship with Christ. Before, Christianity just really seemed like words on a page and something I did. Not ever really resulting in tangible things that I could seem around me. Atleast not anything that couldn't be explained away. I enjoy those moments when something happens and the only explanation for what just happened is God. That's when God comes alive and becomes real to us.

God is good and I'm excited for what I am about to experience. Both good and bad, I know that the next five months will yield a variety of experiences that God will use to further develop me and my walk. If it turns out to be any where near as good as the past ten days have been then it will be a great time. I will be trying to up-date this blog once a week or every other week, so please try to check in as often as you can to see what's going on in Sudan. I will always try and post prayer request on here as they come up. Thanks again for taking the time to check on me from time to time and to see what God is doing in Africa. Enjoy life and every day that you have because none of us are promised tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Cliff

II Corinthians 2:17
II Corinthians 3: 4-6
II Corinthians 3:17

Prayer Requests:
  • Safety Traveling for me and the other interns. (They're names are Ryan, Jeff, Travis, Josh, Claire, Katie, Jessica, Christine, Erin, Dayna, Amy, Jennifer, Stephanie, and Leigh-Anna.)
  • For all the SP Staff throughout the world
  • The people that we will be serving in our countries
  • That all of our baggage will make it to where we are going.
  • My family, girl friend Kristine, and my friends who will miss me while I'm gone

posted by Cliff @ 12:06 AM   3 comments

Sunday, June 18, 2006

An Introduction

Well, here it is - my first blog entry. This is the start to a long line of entries that will chronicle my experiences in life, the lessons I have learned, and the ways God is revealed in both. It is fitting that this beginning comes at the brink of one of the most incredible opportunities I have ever had - professionally, educationally, and spiritually speaking.

From mid-June to mid-November, I am interning with Samaritan's Purse as a part of their Church Reconstruction programs in Sudan, Africa (see "About Sudan" link for more information). The internship opportunity first came to my attention this past February when I was doing research on Franklin Graham for a class paper. While looking at the website for Samaritan's Purse (see "Samaritan's Purse" link for more information), which is the "organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world" that Graham is the President and CEO of, I stumbled upon the internship program under the employment listings.

Because of my past experiences with mission work and disaster relief, having gone to Honduras several times and to Indonesia post-tsunami, I had been very interested in the possibility of this kind of work as a career. The internship presented itself as a chance to test the waters and because it is designed for applicants who have completed post-secondary degrees, I also felt it was perfect timing as I had committed to taking the year after graduation to get a little bit more direction before continuing schooling or jumping right into a job. So, I applied. From mid-February to the end of March, I went through the process of application as well as a phone interview and was selected as one of fifteen interns out of more than one hundred applicants to work with Samaritan's Purse this year.

Of all the interns, I am the only one going to Sudan; others are going to other places such as Liberia, Afghanistan, Uganda, Kenya, Indonesia, El Salvador, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka. The specifics of my job are still unclear, as the Church Reconstruction program is constantly changing. The basics, though, include my involvement with the logistics and management of the rebuilding of churches in parts of southern Sudan. Over the decades of civil war that this region experienced prior to the peace agreement of 2005, a great number of churches were destroyed and pastors killed. Samaritan's Purse's mission in this afflicted area is to provide Sudanese Christians a place of worship and strong leadership. This leadership comes as a result of SP's other focus in this area which is pastoral training. My role in this work will become more specific in the next few weeks and I look forward to sharing that with you.

With that being said, we all know that a blog can have a variety of purposes, some for only a season and many for great lengths of time. Mine will hopefully serve, at least for the next five months, as an opportunity for me to give my family and friends somewhat of a look into my journey in Sudan. Because of limited access to telephone and the Internet, I will provide updates through my family, as well as Kristine, who will post weekly entries as news from the field becomes available. Any opportunities I may have to post will probably be few, but I might be able to make a few updates myself. With that, I will also try to update my Yahoo photo account with pictures I take while in Africa (see "My Photos" link).

I hope that you'll check-in occasionally to see the result of your prayers and support. Please continue to lift-up my safety and health, as I will be in Boone, NC for orientation training from the 19th-29th and then leave there for Sudan. I will be back in Boone, NC on Nov 13th and then Cleveland, TN on Nov 17th (and the count down begins!). Also, please pray for peace for my loved ones, for the people of Sudan, and for the work of Samaritan's Purse.

Thanks!

-Cliff

posted by Cliff @ 9:45 PM   1 comments